Finding Peace

Like many people, I struggle with finding peace from time to time. It usually works like this: I feel peaceful about how things are going at my job but on the personal side, my life could use a little work. Or else things are going great in my personal life but I am at a crossroads about work. It seems I can never have both.

It takes a lot of time and effort to find peace in our lives. First, we have to learn that it does not come from an eternal source - having a high status job, awesome boyfriend or perfect home. No, it comes from within and we find it when we develop our own sense of integrity, honesty and genuineness. It means finding happiness within ourselves and with who we intrinsically are.

For some, it can take years to discover this while for others they may never obtain it in their lifetime. To create that balance we must constantly re-evaluate our decisions to ensure they mesh with our values. This isn't so easy if you're in the field of social work. We are consistently faced with having to make tough decisions that in a perfect world we would not make. It's hard hurting people when all you want to do is help them. We can blame the system but really we are the administrators of the policies and programs. Overall, it's a hard road no matter how you look at it.

And of course being so busy at work leaves us little opportunity in our downtime to consider the decisions we make in our personal lives. Usually, we focus on trying to maintain our personal relationships and ensure only the most necessary of tasks get done. Therefore, it takes a conscious effort to spend a little time each day, week or month to ask ourselves if we are on the right path. The path can include if we are happy with our close personal relationships, spirituality, life goals etc. If there is a nagging feeling about any of these areas than there is a good chance that it needs to be examined. We can ask ourselves what needs to change for us to feel more peaceful about it?

Of course there are always areas of our life that we would like to work on or change. But we have to accept that we will never be perfect and we will always make mistakes (even if they aren't intentional). We cannot predict the future with no matter how much planning we do, and that has been something that I have finally learnt to accept. I can hope for good things to happen in my life and do everything in my power to prepare for these opportunities but I don't know what is going to happen. All I can say is that getting to know yourself, your likes and dislikes, your strengths and weaknesses can give you peace because immediately you will know if you are on the wrong track if your actions do not match with who you really are. And you can't mould yourself to try and fit a situation (whether personal or work related) because you're not being true to yourself. This will only lead to unhappiness and misery.

From a work perspective, as I've likely mentioned before, you have to decide what overall type of social work you can live with. Some people thrive with front line duties while others, say, enjoy policy. It takes time and a lot of investigation to see where we best fit. And how you will know you are in the right place is by the feeling you get when you think about your job - are you dreading it or do you feel generally content about the work you do?

Peacefulness comes from the assertion that we are where we need to be and knowing that we have done everything in our power to make decisions that are true to ourselves. And I have all the faith in the world that if we stick to the path that is uniquely ours, than we will continue to be on the road to peace.